Category Archives: Marine Affairs & Policy

Webinar of the Week: Stakeholder Involvement in the Creation and Management of MPAs

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First year Master of Professional Science student in Marine Conservation, Zachary Lipschultz, is featured in this week’s webinar.

Currently there are 5,880 Marine Protected Areas (MPA) worldwide, many of which have contributed to a 150% increase in the area of protected marine waters from 2003-2010. Zachary focuses on the world’s largest MPA, the 200 nautical mile Chagos Marine Reserve, during a presentation in Dr. Neil Hammerschlag’s Marine Conservation Biology class.

-Andrew DeChellis
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Webinar of the Week: “Increasing Sea Turtle Populations Provides Hope of Recovery.”

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First year Marine Affairs and Policy master student, Katherine Shaw, recently gave a presentation to her “Conservation Biology” class taught by Dr. Neil Hammerschlag titled, “Increasing Sea Turtle Populations Provides Hope of Recovery.”

“I chose this topic because I am very interested in sea turtle conservation. I fell in love with turtles working on my first nesting project in Costa Rica. Since then I’ve also worked on nesting beaches with the National Park Service in the US Virgin Islands, and with C3 in the Comoros, Africa. I am planning on continuing to study turtles. I will be working for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida this summer doing research on sea turtle nests for my thesis,” says Shaw.

She is on track to graduate in spring 2013 and hopes to continue working with turtles, possibly at a non-profit before returning to school in pursuit of her PhD.

-Andrew DeChellis
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Oyster stuffing and other Thanksgiving traditions

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When you think of Thanksgiving dinner does turkey and green bean casserole or oysters and shrimp cocktail come to mind? What you may not realize is that early celebrations to give thanks for a bountiful harvest included oysters and seafood among its traditional dishes. Today, oyster stuffing, shrimp cocktail, crab and even smoked fish dip still have a place alongside (or inside) the traditional turkey and green beans on many dinner tables.

If your Thanksgiving menu includes seafood this year, choose sustainably.  There are several free sustainable seafood guides that can become your personal shopping assistant. The most popular, Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch Guide, is available as a smart phone app as is the Blue Ocean Institute’s FishPhone. Another reference guide is NOAA’s FishWatch Facts, which also provides information on the national standards that goes into sustainable seafood assessments.

What determines a fish’s sustainability is a complex formula that takes into account, among other things, current fish population levels and how effective management measures are in preventing overfishing and population declines. This assessment starts with good science.

Lucky for us, much of this good science is being done here at RSMAS. There are many RSMAS scientists working to collect the fishery population data and management that can be used to determine sustainability assessments.

If you want to learn more about how the science collection process works, check out the research being done by Dr. Jerry Ault and team in the Fisheries Ecosystem Modeling and Assessment Research (FEMAR) group and researchers studying fishery management, fish population dynamics and aquaculture.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

– Annie Reisewitz

Follow Annie on Twitter @annelore

Florida Sharks Breathe a Sigh of Relief

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“They will live to swim another day,” is how RSMAS graduate student Austin Gallagher summed up the move this week by Florida officials to ban several shark species from being fished out of state waters.

Science is critical to ensure effective environmental policies and Austin and Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, RSMAS’ resident shark expert and assistant professor at the Abess Center for Ecosystem Science & Policy, demonstrated how to make that happen. Over the last year they supplied critical scientific data to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission that revealed tiger and hammerhead sharks are quickly disappearing from Florida waters and needed protection before it’s too late.

Scientists estimate that northwest Atlantic shark populations have declined by over 80% in the last two decades. The reason why tiger and hammerheads are so vulnerable, according to Neil, is because of their low reproductive rates. They are slow to mature, not reaching maturity until around 10 years old, and only giving birth ever three years.

Neil points out that current tiger and hammerhead shark population’s levels are vastly different between Florida and the Bahamas. He believes this is due to the proactive conservation laws in the Bahamas, where shark fishing and longline fishing, which takes a large number of sharks as accidental bycatch very year, are banned.

Austin, a second-year Ph.D. student, said the new Florida law will also give a boost to sharks across the greater Caribbean and rest of the southeast Atlantic as well. In conjunction with the RJ Dunlap Marine Conservation Program is studying which shark species are most vulnerable to overexploitation. He believes this new law demonstrates that the wildlife commission realizes the need to protect the ocean biodiversity.

The new measures, which goes into effective Jan. 1, 2012, prohibits the harvest, possession, sale and exchange of tiger sharks and great, scalloped and smooth hammerhead sharks harvested from state waters. RSMAS shark researchers showed how scientific information is critical to ignite government action.

Read more about this new shark law here.

– Annie Reisewitz
Follow Annie on Twitter @annelore

Cobia Leave For Panama; Mahi Added to Line-up at UM Aquaculture

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It’s hard to believe it’s already November. Time flies at the UM Experimental Hatchery (UMEH) when you’re busy making babies… fish babies, that is! The Aquaculture crew wrapped up this summer with an impressive total production of 100,000 cobia fingerlings. A large part of these fingerlings were shipped over to Open Blue Sea Farms in Panama to grow out in cages about seven-miles offshore. We are proud to say that two of our own students, Dan Farkus and Pat Dunaway, were also “shipped over” to Open Blue Sea Farms. They were recruited to work there incorporating UMEH hatchery technology that has been developed for cobia within Open Blue Sea Farm’s facilities. A big shout out to them for the first 25,000 cobia production run at Open Blue Sea Farms, definitely a success story to write home about!

Meanwhile, here at RSMAS we have added a new and very familiar species to our aquaculture lineup, the famous mahi-mahi (dolphin). This most recent addition brings us to five species at the hatchery: mahi-mahi, blackfin tuna, goggle-eyes, Florida pompano, and cobia. The mahi-mahi have been successfully spawning and the mahi fingerlings are growing day-by-day at the hatchery, a must see if you have not yet stopped by UMEH. Trials will be run on the mahi-mahi looking at metabolic rates and energy budgets for this species in relation to aquaculture feasibility. This will aid in the development of the technology to sustainably raise fish in captivity, such as mahi-mahi, to meet growing demands for seafood.

Cobias are also being extensively worked with for nutritional trials, which will continue through the winter. UMEH students and post-docs are replacing a percentage of the fishmeal that goes into cobia feed with soy meal replacement. This will help solve many problems that are inherent in Aquaculture such as environmental sustainability (heard of Fish In–Fish Out?) and improve economics when providing nutrition to the fish. The goggle-eyes, which is a well-known and expensive baitfish is also getting a very nice upgrade soon to a 30-ton brood stock tank. As of right now UMEH are the only ones working on bringing this coveted baitfish to the aquaculture industry.

This semester has brought in new eager personalities to the RSMAS Aquaculture facilities. Good thing too as we needed extra hands to help organize a tour at the Aquaculture facilities for the Society of Environmental Journalists 2011 Conference. UMEH hosted about 30 journalists from around the globe on a guided tour of UMEH facilities, including the research stations mentioned above before hunkering down in the seminar room for a conference with RSMAS Aquaculture Director – Dr. Daniel Benetti, as well as Lisa Krimsky – Florida Sea Grant Agent (Miami-Dade), and Mike Sutton – Director of the Center for the Future of Oceans (Monterey Bay Aquarium).

It’s been an exciting start to the Academic year at the UM Experimental Hatchery… we’re all looking forward for what more is to come… stay tuned!

– UM student Melissa Pelaez
Follow Melissa on Twitter @BlueAquaculture